'The Fault In Our Stars' Shines with $48.0M; 'Edge of Tomorrow' Debuts in Third with $28.8M

Fox's The Fault in Our Stars led the box office with ease this weekend with a very strong first place debut of $48.00 million. The low-budget drama starring Shailene Woodley opened on the very high end of its wide ranging pre-release expectations, which rose rapidly earlier this week due in part to the film's very strong early pre-sales. There is no question that the opening weekend success of The Fault In Our Stars was driven in large part by the pre-existing fanbase of The Fault in Our Stars novel that the film is based on. After the success of Divergent earlier this year, The Fault in Our Stars represents the second strong box office performance for Woodley in the span of just a few months.

The Fault in Our Stars did prove to be especially front-loaded towards Friday's performance this weekend. The film opened with $26.06 million on Friday (including an estimated $8.2 million from Thursday evening shows), decreased a very sharp 51 percent on Saturday to take in $12.68 million and declined 27 percent on Sunday to gross $9.26 million. That placed the film's opening weekend to Friday ratio at only 1.84 to 1. While that isn't a good early sign going forward, in the bigger picture holding power won't matter all that much given the immense strength of the film's opening weekend performance. However, with a strong A rating on CinemaScore and the fact that films aimed towards teenage girls tend to deliver strong midweek grosses during the summer months, it is also still possible that The Fault in Our Stars could stabilize after its initial front-loading is out of the way.

Warner's Edge of Tomorrow was far less impressive this weekend with a third place start of $28.76 million. While the critically acclaimed sci-fi film starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt did open in line with expectations, the film was off to a very lackluster start with its very expensive price tag in mind. Edge of Tomorrow opened 22 percent below the $37.05 million start of last year's Oblivion, though it is likely to experience relatively stronger midweek business as a June release as opposed to an April release. The opening weekend performance of Edge of Tomorrow was more in line with the $29.81 million debut of last year's Elysium. Edge of Tomorrow certainly wasn't helped by arriving in the marketplace so soon after May's heavy line up of high-profile action films.

Edge of Tomorrow opened with $10.61 million on Friday (which included an estimated $1.8 million from Thursday night shows), decreased a slim 1 percent on Saturday to gross $10.47 million and fell 27 percent on Sunday to gross $7.68 million. That placed the film's opening weekend to Friday ratio at 2.71 to 1. Given that Edge of Tomorrow was somewhat front-loaded towards Friday this weekend for a non-sequel and that it received a B+ rating on CinemaScore, it is possible that the film isn't going over as well with initial audiences as it has with critics. Given its price tag, it will obviously be especially important for Edge of Tomorrow to try to hold up well going forward.

The audience breakdown for Edge of Tomorrow skewed towards male moviegoers (61 percent) and heavily towards moviegoers over the age of 25 (73 percent). The film grossed $4.17 million from IMAX locations, which represented 14.5 percent of this weekend's overall gross. 3D grosses were responsible for 47 percent of this weekend's gross.

Maleficent took second place with a second weekend performance of $34.33 million. Disney's 3D fantasy film starring Angelina Jolie was down 51 percent from last weekend. That represented a relatively strong second weekend hold when considering the new direct competition the film faced from The Fault in Our Stars and that second weekend declines have tended to be quite large in general so far this summer. Maleficent surpassed the $100 million mark on Friday and has grossed $128.18 million in ten days. That places the film a strong 30 percent ahead of the $98.54 million ten-day take of 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman (which fell 59 percent in its second weekend to gross $23.06 million). Maleficent will face new direct competition from Fox's How to Train Your Dragon 2 next weekend, but won't really be facing any new direct competition for quite some time after next weekend.

X-Men: Days of Future Past placed in fourth with $15.15 million. Fox's critically acclaimed 3D superhero sequel was down a significant 53 percent from last weekend, as strong reviews and word of mouth still don't appear to be making up for the naturally front-loaded nature of the X-Men franchise. With that said, X-Men: Days of Future Past continues to perform well in the bigger picture with a 17-day take of $189.56 million. That leaves the film just $10.44 million away from reaching the $200 million domestic milestone. X-Men: Days of Future Past is currently running 57.5 percent ahead of the $120.36 million 17-day take of 2011's X-Men: First Class (which fell 50.5 percent in its third weekend to gross $11.93 million).

Universal's A Million Ways to Die in the West rounded out the weekend's top five with $7.35 million. The western comedy directed by and starring Seth MacFarlane was down a sharp 56 percent from last weekend's debut. The film's poor second weekend hold wasn't surprising given the lackluster reception to the film and the relative rush out of MacFarlane's fanbase last weekend. A Million Ways to Die in the West has grossed a softer than expected $30.34 million in ten days and is highly likely to fade away from theatres before much longer.